Anyone have any facts or knowledge about Titaniam valves, any gains over normal valves? Worth getting, cost ext... this would be great, i know there lighter and very strong. Thanks

 

They won't last long on the street,they generally beat the seats out.
Unless ya are shifting at 8500 not much advantage. They make springs to cover you.
If ya were running Pro Stock they would be mandatory.
Stainless valves are the way to go.
Unless ya just HAVE to spend 650+.

 

You can make them live but the seat material has to be soft enough to work with the Ti or you will beat the seats out. Al La LS7....

Unless you want to turn some crazy RPM you don't really need them.

Bret

 

Exactly...

but if you are hell-bent on spending money...

Couple materials to use, beryllium bronze, and bronze alloys such as Ampco 45 or Trojan, reasonable high temperature strength, good thermal conductivity, and low wear against Ti are the obvious goals. For some of those alloys, you will have to have the seats cut from stock in a CNC, which adds great cost.

I use Xceldyne for my ultra performance valves, and their Ti stuff is second to none. I have also used del west which are very nice too.

 

By the time ya get through doing all that ya got 1000-1100 in just the intake valves,no port work and no valve job.He could double that and walk out with a set of castings and titanium intake and exhaust valves that ya could run the 24 hours of Le Mans with.
No port work(2500),no springs,retainers or locks(500). Sooooo to add it all up ya are looking at 6-6500 for a good set of heads with titanium valves.

Like I said he/you ain't running Pro Stock and got no big need for them or a sponsor to buy them. Stainless Steel will do whatever ya want to do.

 

Very cool stuff with no earthly utility for 99.9999% of us for the reasons mentioned. The one use besides all-out high-bucks racing I can think of is if you were builidng a very high revving (8,000+ rpm) street motor where you didn't want to be constantly checking/replacing valve springs. You could get away with less spring due to the light weight of the valves. However, spring technology is advancing. There are now premium springs that will last pretty well with high revs/high lift. They are expensive ($4-500), but far less so than a set of titianium valves. Spending a couple of grand to allow saving a few hundred on springs doesn't make much sense.

Why are titanium valves so expensive? Ti stuff is hard to machine, as I understand it. Maybe OldStroker can comment?

Rich

 

Titanium is hard to machine, and the material itself is expensive too.

 

What Jake said ^^^.


With 1000s of LS7s being built over the next few years, that particular valve size might become more of a commodity, but it still won't be anywhere near the cost of SS.

If you use hollow stem SS valves, beehive springs and Ti retainers, you can get the reciprocating valvetrain mass low enough that some mighty high revs are practical even with hydraulic rollers. I'm not sure how high, but in the 7Ks.
I guess there are some guys who are shooting for 8K with HR. Shoot if GM is selling a 100,000 mile 7K HR LS7, we've all got to be doing it, right?

 

personally i think anytime you have a lightweight valve train its just plain better. I am not sure if there is any gain on the low rpm scale such as 6k and below, but i still think its definitly better. Although not for that much money in the aplication ill be doing. Thanks for all the info.